


This Isn't the Right Fandom for Amortentia, But Here We Are

by AcesOfSpade



Series: Ace's Random One-Shot Collection [38]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Amortentia, First Kiss, Fluff, Implied Relationships, Juvia realizes the truth, Love Confessions, M/M, Natsu and Gray are oblivious dumbasses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-07-08 00:51:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15919605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AcesOfSpade/pseuds/AcesOfSpade
Summary: Juvia gets ahold of some Amortentia, leaving it in little candle holders around the guild hall in hopes of learning what smells Gray finds attractive. She does, but she wasn't expecting the answer.





	This Isn't the Right Fandom for Amortentia, But Here We Are

**Author's Note:**

> I started this the beginning of last month (August), and it sat alone for a while. Then I had a sudden burst of inspiration to write, and I decided I wanted to finish this piece of gay mage trash I'd started. Enjoy lol.

This time, she was sure she would do it. It was a more subtle attempt, compared to her last ones of this nature. No mind-warping or anything like that. Just an honest insight into what he found most attractive. If it wasn’t her, per say, she’d make herself what he desired. That way, there was no way he wouldn’t want her. She’d be _exactly_ what he wanted. At least, when it came to the way she smelled.

 

The potion master she’d visited had called the brew the ‘most powerful love potion known to mages’, stating it can be used to coerce the consumer into falling madly in love with whoever brewed it, as well as innately smelling different for each person depending on what scents they found most attractive. She’d told him she just wanted to use it for a party game where people tell everyone what they smelled, but not that she may resort to using the potion for its more sinister use if her original plan failed.

 

What she was _actually_ planning was pretty clever, if she thought so. She was going to fill little candle-like jars with small amounts of the potion, Amortentia, and scatter them throughout the guild hall. Then she’d casually tell him she put up some incense candles and wanted to know what he thought they smelled like. It was perfect! At least, in theory. She’d banked on him smelling vague things like cinnamon or flowers, so his actual response was startling.

 

The day started like most others at the Fairy Tail guild: Natsu and Gray were bickering like children over something pointless, Erza having to physically hold them apart to stop them from destroying half the hall during their fight. Juvia had placed the ‘candles’ early that morning, before anyone else trickled in for the day. She went about her merry way until she found an opportunity to sit to talk to Gray about the scent of her ‘candles’, which came around mid-day. She caught him during a lull in his usual bickering, sitting at a table near the bar with a drink in hand as he just sat quietly.

 

“Hello, Gray-sama,” Juvia smiled brightly as she sat across from him. “Is everything alright?”

 

“Yeah, I’m good,” Gray assured her with a nod, absently groaning as he knew she was going to try _something_. She always did, when she could get him alone.

 

“That’s nice,” Juvia nodded, folding her hands on the table in front of her. “Juvia was wondering, can you smell the new candles she put up today?” she asked sweetly, trying not to sound too eager. “The person who sold them told Juvia they smell different for everyone. What do you smell?”

 

“I don’t think your candles are working very well, if that’s the case,” Gray hummed casually. “It smells like Flame-Brain’s trail of smoldering ash he leaves everywhere he goes,” he shrugged, taking a sip of his drink. “Maybe try some stronger ones, because it usually smells like that in here.”

 

Juvia did her best not to showcase her surprise on her face, instead schooling her expression into a frown. “Juvia sees,” she nods. “She will go ask some of the others what they think about them then,” she decided, getting up to go find literally anyone else to ask. Was the potion not working? Had she done something wrong?

 

She went over to Mirajane next, figuring there were probably a lot of smells she found attractive. If anyone could prove the potion was working, it would be Mirajane Strauss. While she did prove what Juvia needed her to, the rain mage couldn’t help but puzzle over the different smells the barmaid had listed off. She said the strongest was armour polish, with hints of cake of all kinds. It sounded like a bizarre combination to Juvia, but that wasn’t the point.

 

Needing further proof, she went to Erza, who wasn’t skeptical of her motivations for once. She told Juvia the ‘candles’ smelled like fresh-brewed ale and a sort of sulfer-like scent, which was honestly alarming to the other mage. Erza found fresh ale and sulfer attractive. That was odd, to say the least.

 

Next was Freed, who gave a simple response of ‘lightning’ before hurrying off wherever it was that he was going. She talked to a few other members of the guild, only further confirming that the potion was, in fact, working. For everyone but Gray, it seemed. She decided to ask one more person, since he was pretty honest and had a very keen nose. Maybe he could help her understand, without realizing he was obviously.

 

“Hey, Juvia,” Natsu smiled warmly when he saw her approach him by the job board, giving her a wave. “I heard you got new candles,” he commented. “I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t think they smell all that much like you said they would. Everywhere just smells _cold_ ,” he shrugged in an apologetic manner. “Like ‘everything is covered in ice’ cold, you know what I mean? I can always smell that in the guild hall, ‘cause the Snowflake likes to leave trails of frozen clothing in his path without noticing.”

 

Juvia couldn’t fight the frown that settled on her face at his greeting. The candles were working for everybody the way they should’ve been, so why weren’t they working for Gray _or_ Natsu? It didn’t make any sense.

 

“Oh,” she muttered. “Juvia will look into that, see if the person she got them from has any advice,” she lied somewhat easily, nodding a goodbye and stepping away so she could find somewhere to sit and think this over.

 

Why would the potion not work for two people? It wasn’t a Dragon-Slayer thing in Natsu’s case, because Gajeel and Wendy could both smell different things. It could be anything, or nothing, and Juvia was misunderstanding the whole thing.

 

The biggest thing that was bugging her was that a potion meant to give off scents specific people found attractive smelled like _Natsu_ to Gray. Specifically Natsu, according to the answer she’d gotten from him. And for Natsu, it smelled specifically like Gray.

 

Wait…

 

Maybe the potion _was_ working for both of them, and Juvia was too caught up in her infatuation to accept the fact that the thing Gray-sama thought smelled the most attractive was someone else, which was Natsu. The boy he fought physically on a daily basis, from the day they met as children according to Erza and some of the others.

 

Once that penny dropped, everything slowly started making sense. Gray-sama constantly turning down her advances, the way he bristled uncomfortably sometimes when she made them, the fact that he _actively_ sought out Natsu to fight some days just because he wanted to be near him. Juvia never had a chance with Gray-sama. His heart belonged to someone else, though she wasn’t sure whether he realized he possessed the heart of the one he’d given his to as well or not.

 

Realizing Natsu had feelings for Gray was a lot easier for Juvia, because she’d already suspected he did before that morning. He was an open book kind of person, and Juvia was pretty good at reading him most days. His genuine concern when Gray was injured or in danger, the way his coal-black eyes lit up like stars whenever he saw Gray coming towards him, especially his protectiveness of Gray on any jobs they ended up on together, they all led to one conclusion: Natsu loved Gray. Not the kind of obsessive love Juvia felt for Gray though. It was genuine, one of the purest kinds of love there was.

 

As Juvia began to accept the information she had uncovered, she had an idea. If Gray wouldn’t be with her, maybe she could help him be with the person he wanted. She wasn’t the greatest matchmaker, but if Gray was happy, she found she could live with not being the source of it.

 

Juvia spent the rest of the day recollecting the jars of Amortentia she’d placed, trying to figure out how to get Gray and Natsu to talk about how they felt. They seemed completely oblivious to their shared feelings, and she wanted to change that. Her planning was for nothing though, as she happened to witness the two of them talking on their own terms, not forced by anyone else it seemed.

 

She’d been the last one in the guildhall when she heard them wander in. She ducked into a corner so she wouldn’t be seen, peeking out just enough to see what they were doing.

 

“Did you hear everyone talking about Juvia’s candles?” Natsu asked curiously, though he sounded almost… nervous, scared even.

 

“What, the ones she said smell different for everyone?” Gray nodded, raising an eyebrow. “I couldn’t smell anything,” he shrugged.

 

“Same,” Natsu blinked with a tiny frown. “I heard Erza tell Lucy that the candles’ scent reminded her of Mirajane,” he commented. “And Freed said he smelled actual lightning when Juvia asked him. Doesn’t that seem kind of weird then, us not smelling anything?”

 

_He’s a smart boy_ Juvia thought to herself. She wasn’t surprised he’d caught on himself, even finding herself pleased by the fact.

 

“I know what you mean,” Gray nodded, beginning to frown as well. “Lucy was rambling about how they made her think of Loke too. Cana even bet Mira three hundred jewel that Laxus’ cryptic answer was really him talking about Freed,” he added in thought, hands in the front pockets of his jeans. “And here’s the two of us, unaffected.”

 

_Gray realized it too_ Juvia thought, nodding slightly in content. Maybe the only part she needed to play was setting up the candles that day.

 

“I don’t think she put up candles,” Natsu stated thoughtfully. “I’ve heard about this potion, I think it’s called Amortentia or something like that. Whatever you smell coming off of it, that’s what you find attractive. I might be getting something mixed up there, since it’s been a while, but I’m pretty sure she just left dishes of that stuff lying around all day.”

 

Gray’s brows furrowed for a moment as he listened to Natsu, his cheeks turning a faint shade of pink similar to Natsu’s hair when he realized what Natsu was suggesting. He looked away, eyes trailing to the floor as he tried to hide the flush creeping up from his neck.

 

Natsu fell silent when Gray looked away, shifting on his feet anxiously. He really hoped he hadn’t read too much into the situation and ruined everything he and Gray built over the years. He began to lightly scratched his upper arm the longer Gray was silent, dread beginning to settle in his chest like a weight.

 

“I should’ve realized earlier...” Gray muttered softly after a few tense moments of silence. “When Erza talked about the ale and sulfer scent she was getting from them, she looked towards the bar, to Mirajane, for a moment. She talks about her fixation on that scent in her sleep sometimes, what it means to her. I’m just so used to that scent by now, _your_ scent,” he said quietly, slowly looking back over to Natsu, cheeks still burning pink. “I think I’d have been worried if I _didn’t_ smell your ash trail in the guild hall...” he trailed off, not knowing how to finish that statement.

 

“Yeah, I get what you’re saying,” Natsu nodded slowly, unusually quiet and uncertain in the way he spoke and stood. “Your scent, it’s always been stronger than the others in the guild. Even Lisanna’s, and she smells like a barnyard most of the time,” he admitted. “If anything ever overpowered it, I’d think something was wrong. It’s almost like my nose has decided if I can’t smell you, something’s happened and neither of us are safe.”

 

Gray had never seen Natsu this anxious and nervous in the entire time he’d known the Dragon-Slayer. He was always so confident and chipper, but right then, he looked like he’d break down if Gray looked at him wrong.

 

Even if he’d never admit it, Gray had once looked into Dragon-Slayer quirks like that. It was a couple years after they first met, and he told himself it was because he wanted to know what the fuck Natsu was rambling about. He looked back now and accepted that he’d done it because he thought Natsu was being weird about the way he smelled all the time. He didn’t understand what he’d read then, but now he did. Now, not only did he understand why Natsu had always freaked out when he so much as changed shampoo or body wash to a different scent, but also why he made a point to sniff Gray after every job they came back from.

 

Again, the two fell into a thick silence. This time though, they stood looking each other directly in the eyes. Natsu’s coal-black eyes had the faintest spark of hope in them, while Gray’s midnight-blue eyes reflected realization and anticipation.

 

Neither of them were quite sure who moved first, but they were hyper-aware that they had gravitated into each other’s personal space, as if they were magnets trying to be as close as possible.

 

As often as either mage imagined what it might feel like to share a kiss, nothing they could’ve thought up held a candle to the moment it happened for the first time. There wasn’t any specific thing that was different than their fantasies, rather the entire experience was infinitly more powerful than they could’ve imagined it. Burning heat met freezing cold as their lips connected, the opposing elements causing their skin to tingle all over.

 

One of Gray’s hands loosely circled Natsu’s wrist, the other finding the back of his neck. Natsu’s free hand went to Gray’s jaw, pulling him closer as they kissed almost like it would never happen again. Juvia could _see_ steam rising from every point of contact their skin made, curling and fading into the air. That didn’t normally happen when Juvia had seen them touch in the past, so there had to be something about the tension of the moment that amplified their natural heat (or lack thereof) to the point where steam was possible.

 

When the two finally broke apart, little tendrils of steam drifted from their lips, though neither seemed to pay it any mind. They didn’t back out of each other’s personal space, instead shifting _closer_ and pressing their foreheads together. They didn’t say anything for a fair amount of time, just locking eyes as they stood motionless, like a pair of statues.

 

“What happens now?” Gray finally asked softly, closing his eyes for a moment to regain his bearings. His tone was so unlike the way he sounded regularly, and it surprised Juvia.

 

“At least to me, there are two options,” Natsu said thoughtfully. “We explore this… _thing_ , see where it goes, or we pretend it doesn’t exist and go back to who we were yesterday.”

 

“Now that we’ve finally talked about _this_ , I don’t think I can go back to ignoring it,” Gray admitted quietly. “I was having trouble keeping my feelings to myself sometimes anyway, and now knowing it’s not one-sided, It’ll be hard to go back to ignoring it every day.”

 

“I know what you mean,” Natsu agreed. “Fighting became sort of like a shield for how I feel. I was trying to deny that I had feelings for you that went beyond you being my best friend through fighting you, trying to convince myself you couldn’t possibly feel the same way because of how visciously you fought back.”

 

“Neither of us have to hide or deny anything anymore then,” Gray told him firmly. “I don’t think it’ll be a quick adjustment, but I know that I’m ready for it if you are.”

 

“Definitely ready,” Natsu nodded, closing the tiny distance between their mouths so he could kiss Gray a second time.


End file.
